Helping Her Find Herself
by cheapmusic
Summary: Arizona and her family move to a new town. Still dealing with a horrible night that changed her life forever, can a beautiful Latina help her fight her inner demons and open up? AU High-school
1. Chapter 1: A Warm Welcoming

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Grey's Anatomy or any of the characters; they are the sole property of Shonda Rhimes and ABC. Any other pop culture referenced belongs to their respective owner.

**WARNING:** This story will involve some storylines involving PTSD. I am in no way an expert, but I will do my research to try to keep my story as realistic as possible. If you have any concerns please feel free to message me or comment below.

Chapter 1: A Warm Welcoming 

It was a new town; the blue eyed blond was used to moving from place to place. It came with living in a military family. When duty called The Colonel would pack up and move his family where he was needed. This time was different though, this time he was different, and so was his family.

Timothy Robbins' eyes scanned the street before him as he knelt and tied his running shoes. The cold wind whipped his face causing the young man to shiver involuntarily. He pulled his jacket closer to him to try to keep the cold at bay, but he could still feel the wind biting at his skin. Pulling on the drawstrings of his jacket, he began to do what he did best; run.

His feet pounded the pavement as he ran past street after street of identical houses. His mind raced with thoughts that, no matter high he turned up the volume of his music, stayed floating in his head.

Running used to be Tim's release, no matter how bad a situation was he could always count on running to clear his head. Now it caused him a feeling of guilt and pain. His sister loved to run, they used to run together, and now because of him she couldn't.

When he finally finished running around his new neighborhood Tim Robbins stood in front of the door to his family's new home. He stared long and hard at the floor trying to rid himself of the overwhelming guilt he felt. His concentration was so deep he didn't notice the front door swing open or the pair of blue eyes he now had set on him.

"What are you trying to do, melt a whole in the ground?" Tim looked up to find himself staring into the eyes of whom he was just thinking of. The blonde was clad in only a pair of plaid pajama bottoms and a thin white tank top; she held a bowl of cereal with one hand and the door open with the other. "Come inside already, you're going to freeze to death," Arizona said with a bright smile.

Tim entered the house shutting the door behind him. His body temperature instantly went up five degrees just by getting out of the unforgiving frozen wasteland that was just outside the door. He followed his sister into the kitchen and sat down quietly at the breakfast table.

"So are you going to tell me what's going on with you or are you just going to brood all day?" Arizona asked as she pulled a bowl down from the cupboard and set it down in front of her brother. Tim stayed silent and looked down at his hands. "If you wear gloves no one will know," she said pouring Tim some of his favorite cereal.

"It's not that," Tim replied grabbing the milk carton and pouring some in his cereal bowl. "Besides I prefer the hook,"

Arizona looked at her brother with grim expression, she worried, all day every day. Her brother had changed, he wasn't the same person that he was before, and while she wasn't either, she had an inkling suspicion that Timothy blamed himself for what had happened to them.

"Then what is it?" she asked setting her now empty bowl in the sink.

"Why don't you run anymore?" Tim asked looking up at his sister. When she didn't answer he looked down began to stir his cereal with his spoon until the milk turned a light brown color.

"I can't run," She answered after about a minute of silence. She couldn't look at her brother so she settled on staring at clock hanging above the kitchen sink. A deafening silence filled the room only being interrupted by the ticking of the clock.

"You have your running leg," Tim said softly. It was true, she did have her running prosthesis, but Arizona couldn't stand the stares it garnered her. She had used it often when they lived in San Diego, but that was a huge metropolitan area. No one knew her, she was anonymous. In this town she wouldn't be, this was a small town, of three thousand people at the most. It would be very different. She didn't want to be the disabled girl, not for as long as she could help it.

"I just don't want to be stared at; I just want to be normal, even if it's just for a little while," She replied taking a seat across from her brother.

"I'm sorry," He said almost inaudibly before getting up and leaving his now soggy and uneaten cereal at the table.

"No, I have red dot sight and extended mags as an attachment," Arizona replied to the invisible person on the other side of the screen. "NO MY PERK IS SCAVENGER PRO! YOU HAVE LIGHTWEIGHT, YOU AMBUSH THEM!" Arizona shouted into the mouthpiece of her headset as her player on screen began to climb up a ladder to get to a good sniping spot. She was almost all the way up when a shot rang out and her player fell to his death. "GODDANM IT!" Arizona shouted standing up from her lime green beanbag chair and throwing the controller and headset onto the floor.

"Watch that language young lady!" her mother shouted from the kitchen as Tim picked up the control and exited the game to the main menu. Their mother was in the living room in less than five seconds flat; she looked at her children's glum expressions and lethargic behavior. Both of her kids had been doing nothing but playing video games for the past four hours and she was sick of it.

"Get out!" she shouted earning her confused stares from both her children. Barbara Robbins was always loving and nurturing, but right know she knew her children needed tough love. "I mean it, both of you, get out! I am tired of you two holing yourselves up in the house like little bats in a cave. You did it the last six months in San Diego, and I understand you two were coping, but I'm not letting you do that here,"

"What are we supposed to do? It's below freezing out there!" Timothy exclaimed not really believing that his kind sweet tempered mother would kick them out.

"It's sixty degrees outside not thirty, wear a jacket," she said plainly "You two have fifteen minutes to leave or else I'm taking that game away and you two are going to help me take brownies to all our new neighbors," both siblings looked at each other with a fearful expression before scrabbling up the stairs to get ready.

Not ten minutes later both siblings stood in the garage not knowing what to do next. They both stood in silence for a couple minutes before Arizona finally willed herself to say something. "You should drive," Arizona said holding out the keys to Tim's black 1965 Mustang Fastback.

Tim only looked at the car keys before shaking his head. "I'm not going to drive. You drive," he replied handing her the keys to her new blue Camaro. Arizona looked at him warily before opening the door of her car and getting in. Tim followed suit slamming the car door closed.

"Watch it!" Arizona shouted glaring at her brother for his mistreatment of her car. Slowly she pulled out of the driveway and began their journey into town.

Arizona sighed as they drove through infinite stretch of identical houses. She always hated living in towns like this one, everyone knew about everyone's business; there were no secrets, no privacy. Just scandals and neighborhood gossip spread by bored housewives with nothing better to do with their time.

"So where do you want to go?" Arizona asked looking over at her brother.

"I don't know, what is there to do in this town?" he asked looking out of the window as they passed various shops.

"Mom said she saw a bowling alley yesterday," Arizona said, Tim rolled his eyes at his sister's suggestion.

"Mom also said she saw a skating rink, maybe we should go there," Tim said teasingly, sending his sister a dimpled smile.

"Okay no bowling alley. Oh look an arcade!" Arizona shouted as she veered to the right and turned into the parking lot, and quickly parked in the first empty spot she found.

"Arizona most of those games require two hands," Tim said holding up both of his hands to try and make a point as his sister killed the engine.

"So…..we'll play air hockey the entire time, besides you had no problem playing games on the Xbox," she replied giving her brother her biggest smile.

He narrowed his eyes at his sister, "You're lucky you're my ride," he said as his serious demeanor melted away and revealed a toothy grin.

Arizona climbed awkwardly out of the car only to come face to face with a beautiful brown haired, brown eyed girl, and a very pretty redhead.

"This spot is for handicapped people," the redheaded girl said, giving Arizona a dirty look. Arizona looked back at the marked spot and realized that it was indeed for the disabled.

"Oh you're right, thanks I didn't even notice," Arizona said, the redhead smirked as the blonde got back into her car, but her smirk turned into a scowl when she saw the blonde pull a blue placard from inside her armrest compartment and hang it from her rearview mirror.

"Thanks I hardly ever use that thing, so I forget to hang it sometimes," the blonde said giving the redhead and her friend a dimpled smile before looking back into the car. "Tim come on! Get out of the car already!"

"You don't look handicapped," the redhead said coldly looking Arizona up and down. Arizona looked down at her legs and smiled knowing that her loose jeans made it impossible to tell she was wearing a prosthesis.

"Addison!" her friend interjected, elbowing her in her side.

"I'll take that as a complement," Arizona said with a smile, as she closed the door of her car. "My name is Arizona, Arizona Robbins, and the stubborn ass in the car is my brother, Tim,"

"I can introduce myself, thank you Arizona," Tim's voice said from behind her. She turned and saw her brother closing the door to the passenger door with his hip, both his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He made his way next to his sister as he studied the two girls in front of them.

"You aren't handicapped either," Addison said angrily, Tim only smiled in response. "You need to move your car,"

"Addison! Torres! What are you guys doing?" A tall, broad shouldered guy shouted as he made his way from his parked Audi across the lot to his friends.

"Nothing, hey I have an idea; let's go to inside and leave these two alone," Callie suggested as she tried to pull Addison towards the arcade entrance, but the stubborn girl would not budge.

"No not until they move their car," she said holding her ground.

"What's going on?" Mark asked before noticing the two siblings in front of him. "Hi, Mark Sloan," he said holding out is hand as his eyes raked Arizona's body up and down before setting his gaze on her boobs.

"Not interested," Arizona replied with a scowl as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"Move your car, there are actual handicapped people that need that spot," Addison demanded ignoring Mark's exchange with the blonde girl.

"Okay we heard you the first time, we aren't moving the car. Get over It," Tim said becoming annoyed with the situation, and more specifically Mark.

"Wait, they parked in the handicapped spot?" Mark asked looking at the two blondes in the group.

"Yes, and they won't move," Addison said.

"They have the placard, that means that they can par—"

"Oh please they probably stole that from their immobilized grandmother or something," Addison said interrupting Callie's defense of the blondes.

"Actually it has my name on it, you can check," Arizona said but she was drowned out by Addison yelling something about liars. Callie was about to argue again but Mark decided to take things into his own hands.

"Move your car," Mark commanded glaring at Timothy. The brown haired boy squared his shoulders trying unsuccessfully to intimidate the taller boy.

"Excuse me?" Timothy said, baffled by the audacity of the people in this town. He was in no way even remotely intimidated by Mark. Even if he wasn't as stocky as the shorter boy he knew he would have no problem taking him out; he was raised by a Marine and he knew how to fight. "Who the hell are you, the chief of police? Besides, it's not my car,"

"I'm not kidding," Mark said not dropping his gaze. "Or else I'll break both your legs, so that you'll actually need to park in the handicapped spot," Mark threatened, Arizona tried step toward Mark threateningly but Tim held out his right arm to stop her.

"I really don't want to hurt you dude, but I will if I have to" Timothy warned feeling the anger rise inside of him.

Mark sized up his opponent before letting out a loud laugh, "Please I can take you on with one hand behind my back!" The moment those words came out of his mouth he knew he had said something wrong. A flash of anger crossed Tim's face and Arizona grimaced at the poor choice of words. She knew that the brown haired boy didn't know about Tim's hand, but that didn't mean it wouldn't offend her brother.

"Fine then," Tim said pulling his hook out from his pocket. "You'll excuse me; I just need a moment. I don't want to break my fancy hand when I shatter your jaw," Tim said before unzipping his jacket and revealing the harness he wore to keep his lower arm in place. At this point Mark's eyes were the size of dinner plates and his mind was racing to find some way to get out of this situation, lucky for him Callie came to his aid.

"Please, don't," Callie said softly setting a hand on Tim's left arm. "I am so sorry about this situation, and even though my friends are too proud to admit it, they are too. Please don't do this, you and your sister have every right to be angry with us, but I'm asking you to please forgive them, forgive us," Her big brown eyes bore into him until all his previous anger vanished. Without saying another word he re-zipped his jacket and, put his hands in his pockets.

He started to make his way to the arcade entrance, but stopped and turned back at Mark. "Oh, and if you EVER look at my sister like you did before I WILL break your face with my fist, and no amount of taking down from your friend is going to help you," he shouted threateningly before continuing his walk to the door.

When she knew her brother was out of earshot Arizona turned to the Latina and gave her a small smile, "Thank you," she whispered before turning back and following her brother inside.

**A/N:** Thank you for everyone who enjoyed this chapter. I will make an effort to update the story every week on Sunday. If you can please give me feedback, whether it be constructive criticism or just telling me you liked the story; it would be greatly appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2: First Day of School: Part 1

**DISCLAIMER**: I do not own Grey's Anatomy or any of the characters; they are the sole property of Shonda Rhimes and ABC. Any other pop culture referenced belongs to their respective owner.

**WARNING: **This story will involve some storylines involving PTSD. I am in no way an expert, but I will do my research to try to keep my story as realistic as possible. If you have any concerns please feel free to message me or comment below.

**A/N: **I just wanted to thank everyone who added this story to their favorites or to their story alert, and a special thanks to everyone who reviewed the story.

Chapter 2: First Day of School: Part 1

A dull throbbing in her leg woke Arizona. The slow monotonous beeping made her realize she was not in her bed at home. All sorts of machines and medical apparatuses surrounded her bed making her feel uncomfortable. She looked around looking for someone to explain what was going on. Her eyes landed on Tim. He was hunched over sitting down, with a pained expression marring his handsome face.

"Arizona? How are you feeling?" her brother asked noticing that she was awake, but he sounded so unlike himself. Tim was brash, loud and abrasive, but right now Arizona could barely hear him over the sound of the heart rate monitor. She sat up her leg protested the movement, but she ignored the sharp pain coming from her foot.

"What happened?" she asked her brother looking over at him. He was disheveled; his bright blue eyes ringed red from what she could only assume was crying. He sat in a wheelchair with both hands on his lap covered in a blanket. "Are…are you okay?"

He tried to reply with what he knew he was supposed to say, "Ye-," but couldn't finish before he began to sob. He shook his head 'no' and tried to bury his face in his hands but realized he couldn't anymore. He looked at what was left of his arm with hate filled eyes, "I'm so stupid!" he cried trying unsuccessfully to stop his sobs.

"Tim?" Arizona sat shocked. She tried to recollect anything from what had happened but the last thing that she could remember was Tim and her talking about a song on the radio in the car, and then nothing. "What the hell happened?"

Her brother just shook his head and looked at the foot of her bed, "God, Arizona I am so sorry!" he sobbed. She looked at him unsure of what he was apologizing for. She followed his gaze to her leg, but when she looked over instead of finding two legs poking out of her blanket she found only one. Two seconds past, then ten, then thirty, but Arizona sat motionless. "I'm so sorry," Tim whispered almost inaudibly. Suddenly everything that had happened rushed back into her mind.

When what she saw finally sunk in she was filled with an immeasurable amount of anger, grief and despair. "You are a miserable, miserable bastard!" she yelled looking at her brother with rage filled eyes. Tears flooded down her face as her body convulsed with heart-retching sobs "You did this to me, and I will never forgive you! I will NEVER forgive you! I don't have a leg because of YOU! GET OUT OF MY ROOM! GET OUT!"

Her heart rate spiked and became erratic within seconds her room was filled with nurses. One wheeled Timothy back to his room while another pushed an unknown drug into Arizona's IV bag. Her eyes became heavy once more, and she was once again engulfed with darkness.

When Arizona opened her eyes she looked at the spackled white ceiling above her; she tried counting to three to try to get her breathing under control, but despite her best efforts her heart was still racing in her chest, threatening to burst out at any moment. She could hear her blood circulating in her ears. Every sound seemed magnified by ten times.

She tried to convince herself it was a dream, but the empty space beneath her thigh told her otherwise, and while she no longer felt physical pain she knew that it was not a dream. It was a memory. It was a memory from the worst day of her life, and it was as vivid and real as the day it happened.

The sun was barely hanging over the horizon when Arizona shoved her foot into her running shoe. She hopped over to the other side of her room and picked up her prosthesis. She hopped back to her bed and sat down. She rammed her left running shoe onto the foot and put the leg on. She grabbed the hoodie hanging in her closet and put on a pair of baggy sweat pants before silently slipping out of the quiet house.

The sound of her blood pumping filled her head drowning out all of her thoughts. Her feet pounded the pavement as she ran through town. She ignored the pain shooting up the remaining part of her leg and pushed on. It was uncomfortable to say the least. It felt nothing like a real leg; it felt like fifteen pounds of metal that hurt and pinched, but it was better than nothing.

She ran mile after mile, one step at a time, but thirty minutes into her run the pain became too much and she turned around and limped back home. It was times like these that Arizona resented her brother. Had it not been for him she would still have her leg and she would be able to run her 10ks without breaking a sweat. She wasn't proud for thinking it; she knew it wasn't really her brother's fault, but sometimes on the days when the pain is so intense and she just can't handle it anymore, she just needs someone to blame. Today that person is Timothy.

When she finally got back to her house she found Timothy attempting to make French toast. The smell of burning eggs and toast invaded her senses as she sat down at the breakfast table. Usually the scene in front of her would make her smile, but right now she wanted nothing more than to scream in anger. "Where did you go off to this morning?" Tim asked, as he threw a second burnt toast away into the garbage.

"Nowhere," Arizona replied shortly. She glared at the back of her brothers head for a couple seconds before walking over to the fridge and pulling out a milk carton.

"Well someone's in a foul mood this morning," he said teasingly, as he placed a semi burnt piece of French toast on a plate in front of Arizona.

"Yea well, I think I earned that right," Arizona spit back. She took a bite of her breakfast before deciding she wasn't very hungry this morning. She walked over to the trashcan and scraped the remnants of it into the garbage before placing her plate in the sink. "I'm going to get ready; if you want a ride I suggest you be down here and dressed in thirty minutes, or I'm leaving without you," Arizona said curtly, as she walked out of the kitchen not giving her brother a chance to respond.

Arizona showered quickly and was dressed and ready in thirty minutes exactly. Living in a military family did have its benefits, like learning to be timely and efficient. By the time she was down the stairs Tim was leaning against the front door waiting for her.

The drive to school was filled with an uncomfortable silence. Neither of them felt very much like talking and just stared at the road ahead. Arizona parked in the farthest spot from school not wanting a repeat of what had happened that Saturday at Joe's. "We should park closer," Tim suggested, not bothering to take off his seatbelt.

"Why, are you really too lazy to walk the extra twenty feet?" Arizona snapped, flinging off her seatbelt.

"No, but I noticed you limping earlier," he said still not moving. "You know you shouldn't be working yourself this hard, Arizona,"

"I'm fine, I don't need you to baby me; I get enough of that from Mom," she replied, through gritted teeth, not bothering to find out what else her brother had to say she climbed awkwardly out of her car.

She started making her way to the front entrance, making her best effort to walk as normally as possible. As much as she hated to admit it Tim was right; she was in pain, but she was too stubborn to let him have the satisfaction of knowing he was right.

Five minutes later both Arizona and Timothy stood in front of a furiously typing secretary. Two minutes passed without her giving them so much as a glance. Tim had tried to speak with her but only got her index finger motioning them to wait in return.

The bell rang signaling that class started in five minutes. Arizona was in no mood for this and knew that her brother was far too polite to say anything, so she took matters into her own hands.

"Can you please help us? I'd like to get my schedule before I have to graduate, not after," Arizona said glaring at the secretary.

"Arizona!" Tim exclaims, "I'm so sorry, my sister's just in a bad mood," The older woman just stared angrily at them.

"Names,"

"Arizona and Timothy Robbins," Tim replied flashing the woman a dimpled smile, trying to be as polite to the woman as possible.

"Here are your schedules and a map of the school," she said handing both siblings two sheets of paper. "Get your schedules signed by all your teachers and bring them back at the end of school," she added before returning to her typing.

"Thank you ma'am," Tim said before pulling his sister out of the office and into the hall. "Okay, what's your problem, Arizona?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Tim," Arizona replied shorty, shaking her brother's hand off of her. "I don't know about you, but I really don't want to have a chat about my feelings right now. So if you'll excuse me, I need to get to my class," Without another word Arizona walked away, leaving her brother standing alone in the hallway and at a loss.

Arizona made her way to her psychology class as fast as her feet could take her. She got lost a couple times along the way, but finally managed to find the allusive room 143. When she entered the room she wasn't surprised to see Mrs. Martin, a middle aged woman with graying brown hair, in the middle of a lecture. She waited until the woman noticed her before speaking.

"Hello, I'm so sorry I'm late ma'am, I'm new and I got lost trying to find my way here," Arizona said nervously rubbing the back of her neck, she walked over to the teacher's desk and handed her the schedule she needed her to sign. The woman quickly scribbled her name on the sheet and handed it back to her.

"That's no problem dear, why don't you tell us a little about yourself," Mrs. Martin said looking at her expectantly. Arizona turned to the class and immediately felt butterflies in her stomach. Most students looked bored, and distracted, but others looked genuinely interested in the newcomer, one of them just so happened to be the Latina from the arcade. When Arizona's eyes met hers the butterflies doubled.

"Um, my name is Arizona Robbins," the blonde stopped not sure what she should share about herself. Sensing the blonde's problem Mrs. Martin decided to help her new student out.

"Where are you from Arizona?" she asked

"Well, I'm from a military family, so we moves around a lot, but my last residence was in San Diego, and before that I lived in Orange County," Arizona answered looking to see if Mrs. Martin had any more questions for her.

"Oh have you gone to the Orange County fair? From what I've heard it's very fun," Mrs. Martin asked genuinely interested. The question caused the blonde to noticeably deflate, but if Mrs. Martin noticed she gave no indication.

"Yes I went with my brother last summer. It was a very eventful day," she replied, Mrs. Martin noticing she was going to get nothing more out of the young blonde told her to sit down in an empty seat. Arizona scanned the classroom and saw the only open seat was next to the girl that gave her butterflies, Callie. Arizona quickly made her way to her new seat and sat down quietly next to the beautiful dark haired girl.

"Hi, I don't think I officially introduced myself on Saturday. My name is Callie Torres," the dark haired girl whispered stretching out her hand.

"Arizona," the blonde replied shaking Callie's outstretched hand.

"I'm really sorry about the other day," Callie said shyly as Mrs. Martin continued with the different types of mood disorders and their treatments.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," Arizona whispered tearing her eyes from the whiteboard to look at the girl next to her. "So any big assignments for this class I should know about?" Arizona asked trying to break the tension.

"I know we have a partner project coming up, but I don't know what it is," Callie replied, she smiled at the blonde nervously. Something about the blonde in front of her made the usually calm and collected Callie Torres, jumpy and nervous. "You know I could help you find the rest of your classes later, if you'd like. So you won't be late again,"

Arizona looked at the girl in front of her and smiled for the first time today. "I'd like that a lot,"

**A/N**: I said I would update this on Sunday but thanksgiving put me more behind schedule than I had anticipated. I hope you liked this update; the next one should be in a week.


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